Curtis, Cool on the wolves in Yellowstone, glad I could help spread the code around a little more then. That, and a revelation on Focus Stacking got me to finally crack open the Photoshop disk and install PS6 last night.

cbrandt wrote:

I might pick it up myself .. but I need alot more than NIK software to work on my photos .. lol

I do use Topaz sparingly, but I don't know a thing about layers, which I'm guessing could be quite useful .. lol

so that promo code is jclark / which is Jim Clark, a successful wildlife photographer, instructor and speaker here in MD ( those with FB can locate him thru his name ) .. I'm thinking his wife leads the charge / foundation for saving the wolves and more in Yellowstone.

Lately Jim has been working with his accomplished 10 ( ? ) yr old son who is also winning awards with his photos, a couple of new joint children's books and as an equestrian.

I've so run out of adjectives.

stevez wrote:astrobrian wrote:FlyingPhotog wrote:
I actually received an email from Google offering me the entire suite for free for being a "long time Nik user"

This got some little touches from every product in the Nik Suite except Silver Effex...

Tim Adams wrote:JWilsonphoto wrote:
What do you suppose would motivate NIK/Google to make such an offer? I can't see the upside for them, they just gave away a jillion dollars in software.

Maybe they realized it was overpriced.

"Overpriced" is in the eye of the beholder. NIK has long made effective plug ins with innovative controls. I've never regretted a nickel I've sent them. They also designed one of the first web interfaces that, if you had a crash, allowed you to go back to your account and reload their software in the blink of an eye. No long diatribe involved as in Adobe.

You might be on to something there Wrei. I don't see a company giving away their stuff, even if it is an uber lib operation that should believe in giving it's intellectual property away to folks who did nothing to invent it or bring it to market. Maybe that's it, they've decided that profit is evil and they are just going to share with everyone.

FlyingPhotogRegistered: May 09, 2008Total Posts: 4752Country: United States

Jeff W. wrote:FlyingPhotog wrote:Full Frontal Backside

Jay - your T-Bird images are consistently terrific, this one is no exception

UPS delivered a box of goodies from B&H this afternoon. First light on the new Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR N: in a word, WOW!

Slightly longer version...

On a DX body (D7100): no noticeable vignetting at any focal length or aperture. Sharp corner to corner at any focal length and aperture. Minimal CA at any focal length and aperture. Good color and contrast. No obvious barrel or pincushion distortion, though to be fair I'm not set up to test for it.

On an FX body (D800): modest vignetting with soft falloff at all focal lengths when wide open; should be easily corrected in post-processing. Sharp edge to edge, tiny bit of corner softness at widest apertures. Good color and contrast, minimal CA at any focal length and aperture. No obvious barrel or pincushion distortion (I shot the side of my house with a door frame positioned at the very edge of the frame: it's die straight at 80mm).

Read that last couple of sentences again: on a full-frame body like the D800, which is guaranteed to expose the flaws in any lens, that's remarkable. How does Nikon do it?!.

The lens body is, amazingly enough, a millimeter or two shorter than the 70-200 f/2.8 VR II, if slightly larger in diameter and thus a bit heavier. It's still an easy lens to hand-hold. Takes a 77mm filter on the objective end. The lens barrel extends an additional 2-1/4 inches when zooming from wide to full tele (there's a lock to keep it from extending when hanging from your shoulder, if you want to use it: it's tight enough now that it doesn't extend on its own, though that may change as the mechanism loosens with use and age). I can hear and feel air escaping during the zoom, so it's clearly going to be a dust-pumper in a dry environment: we'll just have to see how much of a problem that turns out to be.

All in all it's a remarkable achievement, in my view. I am not sending it back.

[edited to add sample image: SOOC, 80mm, f/8. First frame is uncropped (notice how undistorted the door frame is at the right edge of the frame); second frame is 1:1 crop at center left edge; third frame is 1:1 crop of top left corner.]

Congratulations Zim! Nice initial look see as well. Mine came in, but a Nikon shooting pro was in need of it, so I let it go and have another on the way. My 100-400 has been on loan to a friend at AFW since October, I need to fly the Cub over there and get it.